Should a Christian celebrate Halloween?

Halloween. A very popular holiday in the United States. But does the celebration have a darker side for Christians?

From Wikipedia.org said:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween)
Halloween - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31, usually by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most commonly in the United States, Ireland, Scotland and Canada. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century.

The name Halloween derives from the older form Hallowe'en, a contraction of "All Hallow's Eve", so called as it is the day before the Catholic All Saints holy day, which used to be called "All Hallows", derived from All Hallowed Souls. Halloween was formerly also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries (along with Christmas and Easter, two other traditional northern European pagan holidays) and given a Christian reinterpretation. Halloween is also known as the Day of the Dead, and it is a day of celebration for Wiccans and other modern pagan traditions, though the holiday has lost its religious connotations among the populace at large....

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Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me. http://www.watchtower.org/archives/

The only day our Saviour said to hold in rememberance of him is Passover.


Peace.

These are the Worlds Holidays. Kids have fun in candy, so I tend to be light on most matters because the fun is out of ignorance...and we can't expect everyone to be in the knowledge at this moment.

Peace.

To avoid retyping, I figured I would just copy and paste this from my Journal entry of the paper I wrote 2 terms ago for College Composition 2.

Religious difference is not evidence to justify condemnation if the religion does not promote harm to others. It is important to begin with the Druid and Celtic history, beliefs, and rituals.
Druids are the Celts priests; therefore, the Celtic history and religions include Druidism. In present day France and Germany, early archeological evidence of the Celts dates back to before Christianity existed. It dates back to around 1200 BC, also referred to as the Bronze Age. It is probable the Celts settled in the British Isles between the 8th century and the 6th century BC. From the 5th and 1st centuries BC they extended through Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The Romans conquered France, The Rhineland and Northern Italy taking control over the Celts in those areas. (The Celts. http://www.ancient-designs.com/designs/Celt.htm)

The Celts have great respect for the Earth, shown by making natural elements and areas sacred. Druid and Celtic religion is an Earth religion. The assumption that all pagans practice devil worshipping is ludicrous. The biggest holiday that is stereotyped is Halloween. This holiday, called Samhain (sow-en), is the last day of the Celtic year. It begins at sundown on October 31st and continues into November 1st. The spirits of people who passed away that year roam the earth on this day and the Celts ward off the spirits with offerings of food and drink. Druidism has four festivals that mark the season cycles. (The Celts. http://www.ancient-designs.com/designs/Celt.htm) The rituals for their festivals include dancing, signing, chanting and feasting. In the early days they offered animal and human sacrifices to make land fertile. These practices have been replaced by spells to protect against negative energies, and preaching of Druids and poets. (The Celts. http://www.ancient-designs.com/designs/Celt.htm)

Why not?

Colossians 2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Doesn't Jesus answer that to you through prayer? If so nobody recored that in a journal or anyhing? Halloween wasn't around when the Bible was written so you are searching for post biblical divine inspiration correct? If so, isn't this a What would Jesus do (wwjd) kinda thing?

The Druids worship Bealzibub.... :biglaugh:
woooo, that was worth a chuckle or two. Bealzibub has nothing to do with Druidism. Druids had thier own gods/godesses/ what not.

wa:do

Exodus 12:21-27
12:21 Promptly Moses called all the older men of Israel and said to them: "Draw out and take for yourselves small cattle according to YOUR families, and slaughter the passover victim. 12:22 And YOU must take a bunch of hyssop and dip it into the blood in a basin and strike upon the upper part of the doorway and upon the two doorposts some of the blood that is in the basin; and none of YOU should go out of the entrance of his house until morning. 12:23 Then when Yahweh does pass through to plague the Egyptians and does see the blood upon the upper part of the doorway and upon the two doorposts, Yahweh will certainly pass over the entrance, and he will not allow the ruination to enter into YOUR houses to plague YOU.

12:24 "And YOU must keep this thing as a regulation for you and your sons to time indefinite. 12:25 And it must occur that when YOU come into the land that Yahweh will give YOU, just as he has stated, then YOU must keep this service. 12:26 And it must occur that when YOUR sons say to YOU, 'What does this service mean to YOU?' 12:27 then YOU must say, 'It is the sacrifice of the passover to Yahweh, who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he plagued the Egyptians, but he delivered our houses.'"

The Druids worship Bealzibub.... :biglaugh:
woooo, that was worth a chuckle or two. Bealzibub has nothing to do with Druidism. Druids had thier own gods/godesses/ what not.

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I think that t3gah is putting forth his beliefs that the gods/godesses of Druidism are in fact Satan misleading people. Why he has decided to target such a small group of "satanists" I do not know but I'd suggest that if he is going to take this view then there are more pressing concerns for him than stopping Halloween. Christmas for example is much more widely celebrated and has stronger connections with Paganistic ideas.

t3gah said:

Guarding some doorsteps are grimacing pumpkin heads glowing with burning candles-made from human fat.

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Are you describing what happened in ancient times or what happens today. If you claim this is what happened in ancient times, you have a major historical problem. (Namely, that Europe didn't have pumpkins until they imported them from North America during the Colonial period.)

t3gah said:

Other doors drip with human blood. It is the night of Samhain, Celtic lord of the dead.

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Actually, Samhain is the name of a holiday. The most commonly accepted meaning of the word is "summer's end." There is no Celtic God of the Dead named Samhain. (There is some evidence that a small group of Celts in a specific region worshipped a god by that name, but he was a pastoral god, not Lord of Death.)

t3gah said:

The Druids were no exception. On October 31, Samhain was said to release the spirits of the dead to mingle with the living.

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Now there's the next problem. There's no historical evidence that Samhain was ever celebrated on October 31 until recently. (Indeed, it makes no sense why the Druids would use a Roman calendar to determine their holy days, so trying to match up the date on our current calendar doesn't make sense for a historical point of view.) However, there is some evidence that Samhain would have fallen in early November -- such as the fact that November 7 is still called "Old Samhain" by some people.

Now I have to ask you: If the historical information in that article is that inaccurate, how can you trust anything else the author says?

Oh great... some self-righteous, self-appointed zealot has appeared once more to tell us what we "really believe". Give it a rest!

Don't play the record backwards. Don't read too much into "bare feet" or being a Walrus. Don't look at the record cover in the mirror. Do join the mainstream of society and lighten up a bit. I don't EVER recall Jesus getting into all of this mumbo jumbo about various mythologies.

Most of this type of tripe is aimed to do ONE THING: Foment distrust and hate. I abhor this as much as humanly possible. Lets work for love instead, shall we?

Perhaps in no other "Christianized" celebration does Beelzebub (Satan) so blatantly honor himself and memorialize his war dead.

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Halloween is a major satanic ritual day. "It's a religious holiday for the underworld, with satanists performing sacrifices and witches quietly celebrating with prayer circles or meals for the dead,"

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The best part about all of this idiocy is the complete inaccuracy of it's "facts". For one thing...and perhaps the most important of all. Actual Satanists DON'T EVEN WORSHIP SATAN!

witches quietly celebrating with prayer circles or meals for the dead,"

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Oh NO! Those EVIL HEATHENS with their quiet celebrations and prayer circles!

Should a Christian celebrate Halloween?
Only if they have a really sweet costume.

Most of the information t3gah offers about Samhain and Halloween is incorrect. This is not entirely his fault; the sources that he got his information from are more than a little biased.

Because the Druids practiced an oral tradition and therefore wrote nothing of their beliefs down, most of the information we have about Druidic religious practices come from the accounts of Romans... who incidentally were their enemies. It is also important to note that Druidic religious practices were most likely part of a mystery tradition... meaning the Romans probably got to learn very little of Druidic beliefs and probably misinterpreted (or flat out made up) much of that which they reported.

Most modern scholars therefore are unwilling to say much about Druidic beliefs, simply because what little is known about the Druids comes from such a biased and therefore unreliable source.

Now... regardless of whether or not Halloween originally had anything to do with human sacrifice or the devil, today most people celebrate and consider Halloween to be a secular holiday that is about getting free candy, dressing up in fun costumes, and having a little fun trying to scare yourself. If you consider these things to be against your religion, then fine, don't practice it... but don't immediately condemn it just because ancient cultures celebrated their own religious beliefs around the same time!

Maybe our numerologists can get 666 out of Nestles, Lord of the Dark Chocolate!.

Actual Satanists DON'T EVEN WORSHIP SATAN!

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I have said this before(because I dislike generalizations) and I will probably have to say it again. There are satanists who worship Lucifer.

I have seen one on another board, and my brother lived across the hall from one in his old apartment.

Maybe our numerologists can get 666 out of Nestles, Lord of the Dark Chocolate!.

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:biglaugh:

Just wondering, what is next?

Are we going to find out that Independence Day is really celebrating when Lucifer rebeled against God and gained his "independence"?

or perhaps,

We will be informed that celebrating birthdays really celebrates Satan, and blowing out birthday cake candles is a satanic ritual, and that infact cake was invented by satan to send us to hell.

There are satanists who worship Lucifer.

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Forgive me then, perhaps there are. But for the most part, I've never met a Satanist who worships the actual Christian devil, as most people think.

Mister Emu said:

:biglaugh:

Just wondering, what is next?

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Well, I see Valentines Day is, too... I've just given up.

t3gah said:

Halloween-Ancient Night of Terror

It is the last night of October. By the light of the moon, a small group of costumed figures move from house to house stating their demands with dire threats. Guarding some doorsteps are grimacing pumpkin heads glowing with burning candles-made from human fat. Other doors drip with human blood. It is the night of Samhain, Celtic lord of the dead.

Perhaps in no other "Christianized" celebration does Beelzebub (Satan) so blatantly honor himself and memorialize his war dead. The writer J. Garnier suggests that celebrations of suffering and death can be traced back to the ancient destruction of all of his human followers, as well as the hybrid sons of fallen angels, at the time of the Flood. Cultures the world over have festivals for the dead, "held by all on or about the very day on which, according to the Mosaic account, the Deluge took place, viz., the seventeenth day of the second month-the month nearly corresponding with our November."-The Worship of the Dead, by J. Garnier.

The Druids were no exception. On October 31, Samhain was said to release the spirits of the dead to mingle with the living. Druids roamed the streets with lanterns, and on coming to a house, they demanded money as an offering for Beelzebub (Satan).

Halloween is a major satanic ritual day. "It's a religious holiday for the underworld, with satanists performing sacrifices and witches quietly celebrating with prayer circles or meals for the dead," according to a USA Today article. It quoted Washington witch Bryan Jordan as saying, "[Christians] don't realize it, but they're celebrating our holiday with us. . . . We like it."

Parents, do you want your children imitating these sinister rituals?

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Hell, yes! And then after that, we'll sacrifice a goat and bathe in it's blood.

And I sincerely doubt the Druids went around with a collection plate for Beelzebub. Perhaps you should find out who in the Christian mythology actually figures in anyone elses religion before you start spouting rubbish.
Oops...too late.

NetDoc said:

Maybe our numerologists can get 666 out of Nestles, Lord of the Dark Chocolate!.

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Damn, you're on fire! I hate that I can't frubal you twice.

perhaps the wrong people are being mislead? Fact checking is a conerstone of honesty and producing non-misleading information.

wa:do